This invention relates to a joint connector in which the processing of wires of earth circuits and the processing of wires of power circuits can both be effected.
For effecting the grounding (earthing) processing for auxiliary equipments in a vehicle, electrical equipments or the like, there has been used an earth connector by which wires of a plurality of earth circuits are connected in a collected manner to the earth side.
Various earth connectors are known, and one of such connectors is disclosed in JP-A-6-44034U.
As shown in FIG. 4, this earth connector comprises an earth terminal 33, which has an earth connection portion 31 (for connection to the earth side) formed at a substantially central portion of one longer side of a rectangular plate-like base portion 30 and also has a plurality of juxtaposed wire press-contacting portions 32 formed at the other longer side of the base portion, and a connector housing 37 which includes wire holding portions 35 for respectively holding wires 34 of earth circuits and insertion grooves 36 formed in the wire holding portions 35 so as to receive the wire press-contacting portions 32 of the earth terminal 33. The wires 34 of the earth circuits are held in the wire holding portions 35, respectively, and the wire press-contacting portions 32 of the earth terminal 33 are inserted into the insertion grooves 36, thereby electrically connecting the wires 34 to the earth terminal 33.
As described above, in the earth connector, the wires of the earth circuits are held in the wire holding portions of the connector housing, and the wire press-contacting portions of the earth terminal are inserted into the insertion grooves, and are connected in a press-contacted manner to the wires, respectively. Therefore, the grounding operation can be effected easily, and the production cost can be reduced since any special apparatus is not necessary. However, this earth connector is designed to effect only the grounding processing, and therefore at an intermediate joint, a separate power connector for processing wires of power circuits is required in addition to the earth connector. Namely, the wire of the power circuit and the wire of the earth circuit in one auxiliary equipment must be connected to the separate connectors, respectively, and it is difficult to arrange the wires in a collected manner, and the efficiency of the operation is low.
Therefore, this invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide a joint connector in which the processing of wires of earth circuits and the processing of wires of power circuits can both be effected.
1. A joint connector comprising:
a first wire-holding portion for holding first wires in a juxtaposed manner;
a second wire-holding portion for alternately holding earth wires and second wires for an auxiliary equipment in a juxtaposed manner in a direction substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the first wires;
a plurality of press-contacting joint terminals, each including,
a first press-contacting terminal to be electrically connected to the first wires, and
a second press-contacting terminal to be electrically connected to the second wires, which connected to the first press-contacting terminal; and
an earth terminal for earthing to be electrically connected to the earth wires.
(2) The joint connector according to (1), wherein
the earth wires and the second wires are held by the second wire-holding portion so that one ends of the earth wires and the second wires are disposed to a side of the first wires,
each of the plurality of press-contacting joint terminals includes a terminal base portion extending in a longitudinal direction of the second terminals,
the second press-contacting terminal is formed at one end of the terminal base portion,
the first press-contacting terminal is formed at a portion of the terminal base portion intersecting a specific one of the first wires so that the first press-contacting terminal can be connected to the specific one of the first wires.
(3) The joint connector according to (1), wherein the earth terminal includes,
a plurality of earth press-contacting terminals to be connected to the earth wires, respectively,
a earth bus bar including a base portion on which the plurality of earth press-contacting terminals are formed, and
a round plate terminal connected to the earth bus bar.
(4) The joint connector according to (3), wherein
the plurality of earth press-contacting terminals are arranged in a row substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the first wires,
the second press-contacting terminals are arranged in a row substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the first wires and are disposed between a group of first wires and the row of the earth press-contacting terminals, and
the earth press-contacting terminals and the second press-contacting terminals overlap each other at end portions thereof when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the first wires.
(5) The joint connector according to (1), wherein
the first wire-holding portion is formed at two opposed side walls of a rectangular box-like connector housing with an open top,
the second wire-holding portion is formed at one of the remaining side walls, and
the plurality of press-contacting joint terminals and the earth terminal are mounted within the connector housing.
(6) The joint connector according to (5), wherein
the earth terminal includes,
a plurality of earth press-contacting terminals to be connected to the earth wires, respectively,
a earth bus bar including a base portion on which the plurality of earth press-contacting terminals are formed, and an extension portion extending from an one longer side of the base portion in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the base portion, and
a round plate terminal which is formed at a distal end of the extension portion and serves as an earth connection portion,
the earth terminal is provided within the connector housing so that the other longer side of the base portion is disposed along and adjacent to the one side wall of the connector housing, and the round plate terminal extends through the other side wall to the exterior of the connector housing, and
a joint press-contacting terminal is formed at a portion of the extension portion intersecting a specific one of the first wires so that the joint press-contacting terminal can be connected to the specific one of the first wires.
(7) The joint connector according to (1), wherein the first wires are power-supplying wires and the second wires are signal-purpose or power-receiving wires.